During Nine Inch Nails’ concert in Tulsa, Oklahoma over the weekend, Trent Reznor made a seemingly stray comment about how the band might not be touring for much longer. It’s not the not the first time Reznor has made such a claim, and famously, his last farewell tour definitely did not stick.
In between songs, Reznor spoke about his love for Tulsa, recalling a Nine Inch Nails show long ago at Cain’s Ballroom, one of the city’s famed venues. He remembered seeing a fan in the way back screaming along to “Head Like a Hole,” and as he told the crowd, he remembered thinking, “This is all I ever wanted in life, to connect with somebody like that dude in the back.”
Reznor then added, “I don’t know if we’re going to be touring anymore after this, but I’m proud of the show we’re doing right now. And I’m fuckin’ grateful that you’ve chosen to spend your evening with us tonight. Thank you very much.”
Nine Inch Nails’ ongoing “Peel It Back” tour launched last year and will continue for another couple of weeks, wrapping March 16 in Sacramento. (After which they’ll play Coachella in April with Boys Noize, under the moniker Nine Inch Noize.) Prior to Reznor’s remarks at Tulsa’s BOK Center last Friday (Feb. 27), the band had given no indication that this might be a farewell tour — something NIN famously did once already.
Back in 2009, Reznor said he thought it was “time to make NIN disappear for a while,” with the band embarking on their Wave Goodbye Tour later that year. At the time, Reznor seemed to mean it. At a special small club show in New York City that September, the frontman even remarked onstage, “This is fucking tiring up here, man! I’m too old for this shit.”
Four years later, Nine Inch Nails were back with a new album, Hesitation Marks, and an accompanying world tour. Since then, they’ve remained a consistent touring act, while staying pretty busy in the studio. The last albums of all original NIN material, Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts, both dropped in 2020, while last year the band shared its soundtrack for Tron: Ares. (Reznor and his musical partner Atticus Ross have also stayed busy with a variety of other film projects.)
